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http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/South_Korean_Flag.jpg U.S. sales for Hyundai last month were 30,621 vehicles, 28 percent of the total for Toyota, the world's biggest automaker and No. 2 in the U.S. (http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/business/epaper/2009/03/22/sunbiz_hyundai_0322.html)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/2008_Hyundai_Elantra.jpgAlan Ohnsman - The Palm Beach Post (http://www.palmbeachpost.com) - Mar. 24, 2009

Solid vehicles with an excellent price. The FE is improving rapidly, as well! --Ed.

LOS ANGELES — The worst U.S. car market in 28 years doesn't bother George Glassman, an auto dealer in suburban Detroit. He sells Hyundais.

"Last week a customer traded in his Lexus for a Veracruz" sport-utility vehicle, said Glassman, whose dealership is in Southfield, Mich. "That didn't happen before."

Hyundai Motor Co. has been winning sales with an offer unique to the industry: it will buy back cars from U.S. customers who lose their jobs and can't make payments. Amid a recession and unemployment forecast to rise this month to the highest since 1984, Seoul-based Hyundai has had a 4.9 percent U.S. sales gain this year while Toyota Motor Corp. is down 36 percent.

"The crisis has provided Hyundai an opportunity and they grabbed it," said Kang Shin Woo, chief investment officer at Korea Investment Trust Management Co. who oversees $5.8 billion in equities including Hyundai shares. "The aggressive marketing strategy gives them an advantage over rivals."

Hyundai, Asia's fourth-largest automaker, has also been able to hold down U.S. prices because of a 29 percent drop in the... http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/business/epaper/2009/03/22/sunbiz_hyundai_0322.html

I have to admit, it's a pretty compelling deal. They are also offering

- Hybrids coming soon
- non-hybrids tweaked for efficiency
- one of the few small wagons with a manual transmission, not upsized into an SUV

I'd love to see what an Accent Blue could do. To be fair, it'd have to beat a Yaris to make it compelling though.

These things have way better warranties than anything the big 2.5 puts out...

Solid cars, deserving some sort of best bang for the buck award. It's refreshing to have a low bucks company producing quality automobiles.

The funny thing is, no one I talk to seems to get that excited about the assurance program. Some are even half offended, and look at me like "What, you think I'm going to lose my job or something?"

My initial thought was that the program was just begging to be abused. Perhaps not by the consumers so much, but the dealerships. The fact that the program will cover up to $7500 in negative equity seems to leave the door open for a lot of finagling if the customer wants to get out of the current vehicle and into one with a lower payment.

But, since we're a few months since the launch, and apparently no one has actually used it, I guess it's sort of moot. I just wonder how many hoops one has to jump through to make a claim on it.

But, since we're a few months since the launch, and apparently no one has actually used it, I guess it's sort of moot. I just wonder how many hoops one has to jump through to make a claim on it.

I would guess that before the plan pays out, you would definitely have to prove that you lost your income. Something along the lines of showing them the pink slip.

It's easy to make your own pink slip, actually (I found this out years ago while doing a load of wash when I should have been sleeping). Take your wife's brand new undergarments and put them in the washer along with a recently purchased cranberry-colored bathroom rug. Wash. Dry. Voila: a pink slip. And a lot of pink socks, too, evidently. Bonus points to anyone who wears only that pink slip when driving their Hyundai back to the dealer to turn it in. They will pay you just to leave quickly.

Since not all people qualify for unemployment coverage, I am not sure they would have to require the check stubs, but there would certainly need to be some sort of verification of the loss of income. The coverage is actually an insurance policy, and insurance companies hate to pay anyone anything, so I'm sure they have it figured out that trying to prove you lost your income would be a full time job in and of itself.

When something sounds too good to be true...

Hyundai's leaflet (http://hyundaiassurance.walkawayusa.com/pdfs/HyundaiAssuranceLeaflet.pdf) summarizes the benefits, but there aren't as many as you'd think.

First, you must finance or lease a new Hyundai.

Second, you must meet one of five relatively generous conditions:
be involuntarily unemployed
have a physical disability
lose your driver's license
have an international employment transfer
have a self-employment personal bankruptcy
accidentally die

Then you must have made at least two payments and be current on your loan or lease. That explains why Hyundai has only two claims to date. The program hasn't been in effect long enough for most people to have made two payments.

Hyundai determines the value of your car. The plan only covers $7500 of negative equity. You must pay the balance above that

Here's how I picture it working. You buy a Hyundai Elantra for $15,000 plus taxes, license, destination charges, etc. Total cost is $17,500. You put down $2000 and finance $15,500 at 7.99% APR for 60 months.

After two payments, you lose your job. Hyundai's Assurance Plus program pays three months payments, but you're still unemployed at the end of that time. Let's say the car is worth $13,000 now, and you're 6 months into the loan. You still owe $14,212, but the car is only worth $13,000. Hyundai pays the $1212, takes the car, and you walk away from the car and the loan. Not a bad deal at all.